Jean Francois Tanda: European court decision is for the Good of the Game

Football belongs to everyone. That’s basically the outcome of the recent decision by the European Court of Justice that ruled against the two football governing bodies, FIFA and UEFA. Formalistically, the case was about Belgium and the UK. Both countries had decided to declare football World Cups and European championships as ‘events of major importance’ and as such have to be broadcast on free TV channels. FIFA and UEFA both tried to avoid this decision,

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John Yan

John Yan: 不能容忍的灰色地带 A Tacit-Understanding Match

不能容忍的灰色地带

经过伪职业足球在中国二十年的教育，我逐渐学会了辨析”假球”和”默契球”这些专有名词之间的细微差别，甫一听到都感觉不可思议且义愤填膺，对于那些骗子掮客，绳之以法是刻不容缓的。然而这样的场景一再重现——十多年前，”渝沈之战，绝对假球！”这样的标题，让我无比震撼，可是震撼完了之后，哪怕我们都没忘记这样比赛的存在，我们也只能在无可奈何中继续承受着。

所以社会公认：球迷是中国最苦逼的群落。现实的不堪与肮脏，或许你还能找到一些办法排遣和缓释，可足球本来是给大家一个闲暇时聚众的机会、让社会群落在聚众的环境下找回部分心理平衡，然而中国足球显然只有让你心理更严重失衡的作用。

如此的弄虚作假，光天化日之下进行，手段拙劣嚣张，所以有人说天津辽宁这样的”默契球”，”比’假球’技术含量低多了”。在严格的职业足球环境里，这样的职业比赛，呈现给观众的就是一种具备观赏价值和地域归属感的产品，从而换取观众支付的门票现金、通过电视观看的收视率，并且将这些关注度在第二级市场上形成转化，得到广告赞助收入。社会契约关系，是职业体育商品化的属性组成。天津辽宁的比赛，倘若被认定是”默契球”，那么就是对所有观看这场比赛的现场观众、电视观众以及中超乃至足球所有观众的一次欺骗。这样的欺骗，本质上和售贩假冒伪劣产品，有何差别？

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Osasu Obayiuwana

Osasu Obayiuwana: What do footballers owe themselves?

Louis Paul Mfede, the influential, classy midfielder in the Cameroonian side that reached the quarterfinals of the 1990 World Cup, died last month, at the relatively young age of 52.

But as sad – and shocking – as his demise was, the cause of his passing is far more surprising. Mfede died of a lung infection, which he was unable to treat at a Yaoundé hospital, because he could no longer pay for his hospital treatment.

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Andrew Warshaw

Andrew Warshaw: Qatar 2022 – Winter Rules apply

So now we finally know where we stand on the 2022 World Cup. More importantly, so does Qatar.

Six months ago, I wrote that every time FIFA was asked whether it would sanction a winter tournament, it gave the same answer: only if Qatar, as host nation, officially requested it. I also wrote that every time you posed the same question to the Qataris, you also got the same answer: only if they were formally asked to switch by FIFA.

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CSKA Sofia to become Bulgaria’s first publicly quoted club

cska sofia fans

By Alexander Krassimirov
July 18 – Bulgaria’s most successful football club CSKA Sofia looks set to open a new chapter in its illustious history and become a public company. The club has had a turbulent few months which has seen it flirt with bankruptcy and Bulgarian football legend Hristo Stoichkov, who was brought into the club but then quickly left.

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